TRADE DISPUTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 5

TRADE DISPUTES.

A BRITISH BILL - • BOARDS TO BE ESTABLISHED. LABOUR SUPPORT. (DT TELEGBAPn-SBBSS ASSOCIATION— COriBIOIITj London, March 25. In tbo House of Commons, Mr. Winston Churchill, Presidont of tho Board of Trade, introduced a Bill to establish certain Trado Boards empowered to fix and enforce minimum standard wages. The Bill will bo applicable to homo and factory,work, and tho boards will be gives full power, of inspection, detection, and punishment. Tho Labour mombors enthusiastically support the Bill, which goes further than tho Sweated Industries Bill of 1908. A FORECAST. A now method of dealing with trado disputes was forecasted by Mr. Churchill last year. Writes "The Times "-.-"Mr. Churchill has arrived at tho conclusion that the machinery hitherto availablb for this purpose might bo so extended and improved as to increase, its popularity alike with employers and with the the employed; and ho hopes to accomplish tho improvement by the establishment of a now tribunal, of either three or five members, to be formed as occasion may arise, from three previously selected panels. " Tho first panel of possible chairmen will bo composed of 'persons of eminence and impartiality' > tho second wilt be formed of persom drawn from the employer claw; and tho third from tho class of workmen and trade unionists. The second and third panels will include a sufficient number of persons to afford reasonable probability of finding two who are of impartial mind in relation to any particular dispute; and Mr. Churchill expresses his belief that a Court of five persons will bo more generally acceptablo to tlto workmen than a Court of three only. "The procedure to lie adopted is that,, in any trado dispute in which both parties ngroo to accept the award of the proposed tribunal, a special Court for the purpose of hearing and adjudicating upon (ho ouse will be formed from tho panels described, and will, if necessary, bo aided by assessors appointed by the Board of Trado for the single purpose of fully explaining to the Court any special conditions which may exist in tho trado concerned. As tho personnel of tho Court must, from the very nature of its constitution, be constantly varied, it is hoped that tho institution as a whole will bo in no danger of incurring unpopularity as a consequence of any single decision. The project can bo brought into operation as soon as may be required, and no fresh legislation is necessary for tho purpose. The present proposal is certainly deserving of encouragement, and of as compfcto a trial as tho contending parties in appropriate cases may see fit to extend to it," adds "The Times." "It has tho obvious merit of flexibility, of adaptiveness to tho varying conditions under which disputes may arise; and it is not too much to assume that, as a rule, both partics to a dispute would be disposed to welcome any machinery for affecting a settlement from which they could both hope for substantial justice, and by which tho amour propro of both would bo preserved from injury. , "The greatest hopo of effectual adjudication under tho schemo will be afforded, there can l)o littlo doubt, in the cases in which tho aid of the new Court is early invoked, before thero lias been time for tho cultivation of angry,or vindictive feeling on either side; and on this account, ns well as in ordir that (ho now Court may obtain a fair trial upon ita merits, we hojio that disputants of weight and importance may be persuaded to have early recourse to tho suggested' intervention."